Keeping the postal service up & running, one stamp at a time. Usually silly, sometimes cranky, occasionally a mix of the two.

mail art

After a somewhat long & stressful work day, that began with me waking up hours early thanks to a vivid (but actually quite useful) work dream, I was so happy to come home to this beautiful surprise envelope from my pen pal Cindi.

I love all three of those stamps. You know, I grew up on comics–ALL of them. I used to read every single comic strip in the newspapers. This lasted until Bill Watterson gave up producing Calvin & Hobbes, my favorite strip. That’s the day comics stopped being so fun. Now I still do receive a paper–but I don’t always pick up the comic section at all, yet alone read much of what’s in it. I suppose if more people got newspapers, read the comics, and got vocal about what they loved & why, the comics could–dare I say it–be great again.

Okay, enough of the aside, let’s get back to the treasure! I love this art atop Cindi’s letter.

Hey, it’s Young Sally Brown!

And here, the treasure amid the treasure! Suntan Snoopy enjoying some Hawaiian local food: Loco Moco! I love the sticker. I might have gasped when I pulled it out of the envelope, I don’t remember.

Now a sticker sheet! Awesome.

I would love a sheet of Pig-Pen stickers!

Now, a New Year postcard from Japan! I’ve said it before, & now I’ll say it again: why aren’t New Year greeting postcards a thing here in the U.S.?

Hey, a book mark! Two, actually! Which is good, since I never read just one book at a time.

So many details in this package, I need to try to include as many as possible. Let me show the backside of the letter paper:

And there were these somewhat small envelopes (not quite 4″ x 6″) that were printed for mailing. Dare I try it?

…and the matching letter sheets…

And, putting a stake in it–washi tape!

WOW.

What a great way to end a day! And it was all so overwhelming, I went right to sleep.

Soooo nice to see the bills & junk mail peppered with some beautiful postcards! And I had a good idea, before I even took a good look, that they came from my two most kind & posta-talented snail mail pals.

Snoopy & ‘Stock are courtesy of Cindi in Hawaii, who really Peanutsed-up the back of the card!

Breathtaking!

And my pal in Tokyo, Japan turned a Snoopy print ad into a wonderful envelope.

Have a closer look at the stamps: the card from Japan has a little something extra: a stamp from Italy!

Right now, I’ve got those swap-bot nerves like you wouldn’t believe. Why don’t I just quit & take off the pressure? Today, it’s 2 swaps off to 3 people; I’ll save the bigger deal for last.

First off, it’s a trade of 5 free bookmarks. “Free bookmarks” are the kind of book marks you get for free. I decided to make my own envelopes; let’s look at those now.

The top package is going to Fredericksburg, Virginia, and the bottom one goes to Auburndale, Novia Scotia, Canada. Since the swap rules called for 5 book marks, I put in 7. And some other stuff.

I know I’d give myself the “extra special” heart for this, but I always put in the effort, and always give the people sending me swaps the benefit of the doubt unless they take it away from themselves forcefully.

Now, the OTHER swap, oh, the nerves! This one is a “profile-based small package swap.” We were to use our partner’s profile as a guide, and send at least 4 items, at a value of at least 8 dollars. I printed out this person’s profile–oh, she’s in Crowthorne, Berkshire, United Kingdom–and read it, and re-read it, and made a couple of notes. And then I spent more time shopping than I ever, ever do. Got 4 different things, at 3 different stores, and then ended up shopping online for a 5th thing! She likes bunnies & owls, and green tea, and wide tape…

And then I shipped it off. That’s $23ish, right there! THERE MUST BE A BETTER WAY!

The postal clerk always says she likes my packing tape.

So I hope everyone loves everything, and that they love me, too, and give me a good grade, The End.

So, we’ve been talking about those swap-bot nerves, and my latest bout, incurred while preparing a swap I’ve sent off to India. Always, always going for that extra-effort heart, always somewhat in fear I won’t even be awarded the “you at least did what you were supposed to do” rating of 5…

Well, I’ve received my goods from the person who drew my name in this “flat envie envelope of fun” swap, and…WOW. In from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada:

Holy cats.

An envelope with an elephant; address labels; postcards; and that booklet–about the size of a passport, but with many, many more pages (more than 20 in all), full of fun & wonder. Let’s take a few peeks:

Yes, there were yoga-tastic pandas throughout the thing, but I did not count them; I was just way too overwhelmed!

Cool! Hey, what’s with these tiny Polaroid shots, is this a thing?

Another photo of another photo:

I want to rescue it from its landfill, I do.

This page made me gasp:

I don’t believe in dressing up animals, but these stamps are amazing.

And then there’s this scene, depicting ME:

This entire thing is absolutely horrible, am I right?

I mean, clearly this is full credit & an extra credit heart; she obviously spent HOURS on this package. And then there’s that stuff I was so proud of, the stuff I just linked back to several photos ago. I mean, I did go over & above, but THIS person, she went over & above, and a Disneyland fireworks show!

I was so overwhelmed, I practically babbled in my swap-bot thank-you message. She’d asked a lot of funny little questions in her book, and she’d left a return address on her envelope, so I figured the decent thing to do would be to send off a little “thank you” mailing. Nothing to compete, but I should at least try to go a bit for the overall spirit. What was going to be one postcard, turned into 2 cards, an envelope & a tattoo. I’ll show most of everything but the tattoo, simply because I forgot to take a shot of it (it’s Snoopy). Here we go–2 postcards…

She likes silly, odd postcards; I give her silly, odd postcards.

…written…

I used to actually do this kind of thing. It’s been decades–pre-internet, and this post is already too long, so let’s not go time-traveling now.

…in an envelope I (had previously) made…

SmurfMail

…and envelope that also had a backside:

Just don’t show the lady in India the mail I got; she may think I done her wrong.

So anyhow, I think I may have to take something for my swap-bot nerves.

I drew another Postcrossing name this morning. This user is a nurse in Oss, Netherlands, and I saw that I happened to have one of her “favorites” in my Postcard stash. I’m not usually one to send postcards in envelopes, but I did in this instance because:

She said she preferred receiving her postcards in envelopes (least-influential factor in my decision)

She said she’d love getting a few canceled stamps from senders’ countries (eh)

I happen to have a little stash of envelopes I’ve made from recyclables (most-influential factor)

Here’s what she gets!

That SF United Airlines travel image reminds me of the beautiful art they turned out to promote Hawaii. I wonder if there are postcards of those very inviting images!

BTW: In the last 24 hours or so, I’ve received Postcrossing “Hurray” messages that 2 of of my postcards have reached their destinations:

I’ve got a friend in San Francisco who really likes images of mushrooms. This week, Postcrossing brought me two pieces of mail with mushroom images (as shown in my previous post). So, once logging them, I sent them on to their (perhaps) “forever home!”

As you may be able to tell, I fashioned the envelope from an old to-go menu. Since the envelopes I’ve previously made & saved were not big enough for the postcard I was sending along, I found an envelope that WAS the right size. It was part of a stationary kit sent to me by a charity that has received some of my money, & wants more. I carefully took apart that envelope, opening it so it was one continuous piece of paper–and my new stencil. I laid that over the menu, and then traced, cut, and finally folded & glued together my own envelope. Great for mailing resumes, too, yeah?

Here’s the mushroom filling:

Do you ever make your own envelopes, or forward bits from Postcrossing/swap-bot that you know may thrill someone you know? I’m that one guy. I wish my own friends subscribed to the same silliness; it would make my mail more fun & unpredictable!

The dragon card was originally sent to me with some other cards in an envelope for another swap-bot trade. Now it is going out to Auburn, California in a “free postcard” trade. Since it has been years since I have stumbled into any of those racks of free ad postcards, I am grateful to have anything at all to send out in a trade such as this.

The remaining cards are going out in one of my favorite ongoing swap-bot trades, the “chunk o cardboard.” As the name implies, all that is required is that one mail out a chunk of cardboard…

…for the swap’s host in Saint Paul, Minnesota, though, I try to send something special. I created sea life postcards in sextuplicate a couple of months or so ago; I think this may be the third of the batch I am mailing out. The others I have sent are posted on this blog, too. I’m always happy for a chance to be paired with this member, & thank her for creating a cool swap.

The ginger ale is going to another swapper with whom I’ve been paired more than once in the past; she’s in Immingham, England, and though I am sure she’s encountered ginger ale, I have no idea if it would have been Canada Dry. All of a sudden, I have a great thirst for Schweppes.

And its famous Schweppervescence.

Back to the U.S., the dog treat panel is on its way to a swapper in Goleta, California. I tell her I wasn’t sure if my dog would go for this new product, as she doesn’t usually like snacks with what I’d call a “plastic-y” texture. Well, I needn’t have worried.

When I responded to a swap-bot call to make a fish tank postcard, I was very happy with my entry. I still am, but this amazing creation blows me away every time I look at it!

The artist, Grace, describes her work:

“I had awesome fun making your postcard. I gathered images from old magazines, an old book on fish tanks, the background from a new Game Informer magazine from my grandson. I really am hoping you’ll love it as much as I do.”

I want to frame the thing.

The art continued to the back of the card; here is a peek, along with the stamps.

The card’s artist created these geometric stamps by hand, along with a few more not shown here.

Donald is on his way to Su’ao Township, Taiwan (Su’ao Township, located in southern Yilan County, Taiwan, is an urban township that is famous for its seafood restaurants and cold springs. –Wikipedia). The card is part of a Postcrossing Forum Disney tag thread.

The next two cards are for a swap bot “not your usual postcard” trade. All it meant was that we could send anything but touristy cards, but I decided to go the crafty route, with a couple I’d had laying in wait.

The stampy card went to Lowell, Indiana. Back in April, I sent this one’s twin (identical, though not identical–uh, read on) to Liverpool, New York. I had created a single collage of stamps, and then cut it into two postcards, sending one out for a swap-bot “stampcard” trade. The remaining twin has now also been sent out into the world.

The fishy card is a multiple-birth, too. This one went out to Stone Mountain, Georgia. It’s been just a couple of weeks since I created a sextuplet set of fishy cards, prompted by a swap-bot trade instructing participants to make a fish tank postcard. That first card went out to Enterprise, Alabama. Here goes 2 of 6; so you can expect to see more swimmers coming through!